The 1st 24 hour krud and I did we ran "beer cuzie" lights- they heavy as a truck, and just as bright- had the blackburn X-6 (duals) for a while and wasn't very happy with them- small area lit up, low run time.

For ultra cheap- Wal-mart has a Bell handle bar mount that takes four AA and a flashlight bulb- about 10 bucks and it's just as bright as any $50 light I've seen, but it only lasts about 1.5 hours. I used to have one on hand in case my main went down, but I don't usually carry it any more because my Tri-newt has never gone down.

There are 1 watt LED flashlights you can buy for 20.00 or so that put out great light and last a long time for the money- you just have to make a mount or re-engineer the whole thing. I have zip tied one to my helmet on occasion for a light and it works amazingly well!

With lights, you get what you pay for- several of us have gone through the "to heck with that price, I'll build my own" phase, but any one who rides much has broke down and bought a good light. My tri-newt was new for $265 delivered of off e-bay and I'm extremely happy with it.